How To: Fix Your Shoelace Tips & Repair Frayed Laces

You know the phenomenon. No thing how difficult your try, eventually, the fiddling plastic tip on the terminate of your shoelaces (the official term is "aglet") will get crunched up, and slowly, you lot find yourself with a ready of frayed laces. You could do the classic trick of burning the ends with a lucifer to seize the fibers, simply that's a temporary solution, and eventually, yous'll stop up exactly where you started.

Shoelaces are, of course, replaceable, and if you only need a white or black pair for sneakers, or perhaps the classic aureate variegated laces often institute in leather workboots, you lot can switch them out if you like. But, and then many pairs of shoes rely on the complement and/or contrast of the laces every bit a design chemical element, and so ofttimes, you lot can't find a replacement.

So, instead, let's figure out how to fix shoelaces so they stay meaty, useable, and fray-free.

How to Repair Frayed Shoe Lace Tips

The good news is: the materials required for this project toll almost four¢ to execute. The bad news is: no one will sell you lot a unmarried unit to fix it.

Instead, yous need to get your hands on some articulate heat compress tubing. This is a material used in electronics work, for collecting and coding wire, sealing splices, etc. It looks like a drinking straw, simply is designed to shrink down to half its original size when heat is practical. And then, basically a shrinky dink tube.

Yous can find this at domicile centers just I'd recommend the route I took: you can buy this contrasted set with Amazon Prime for less than $10. It comes with eight sizes, 2 of which work well for shoe laces, hoodie strings, etc: there are 40 units of the 5mm and thirty-two of the 6mm. You can fix two shoe lace tips with each unit, and then a total 144 lace tips in the box for $8…or almost 5¢ each. Plus you'll have the other sizes for different projects.

Okay! Let's do information technology. Begin by selecting the right size for the job.

So, clean up the ends of laces by removing any and all frayed thread, torn pieces, and the like. Don't go besides carried abroad here, as you tin can clean it up again at the end. You just desire to make a squeamish make clean edge that yous tin slip inside the tubing.

Insert the lace into the tubing about halfway.

 And then, check the overall length against an intact lace tip. If y'all don't have 1 for reference, 3/4″ or so is plenty. Trim the tubing to length.

Now, y'all need to oestrus the tubing. The easiest manner is with a heat gun. The tubing needs to go to around boiling h2o temperature to full shrink, about 200-225° F or 100°C.  Not all pilus dryers can go this hot, just it'due south worth a shot. Also, a heat gun is a super useful tool for all kinds of DIY projects. If you don't have one, now's a perfectly good fourth dimension to choice one up for $20.

Of course, if you don't want to selection up a oestrus gun you can use whatever high powered blow dryer. Heat is their default setting and even though it will take a fleck longer, information technology will work just as well.

What temp to apply? Anything over 200°F will compress the tubing. Just if you tin select information technology, I got the best results setting the gun to effectually 600-800°. This allowed me to shrink things fast, producing a cleaner, more even surface, and meant I could hold the gun a picayune farther abroad for even distribution.

If you don't have a rut gun, no worries! Merely apply a candle, lighter, or even a friction match to heat the tubing. Merely take even passes over the flame, and rotate things regularly to shrink evenly on all sides.

One time it'southward cooled for nigh 15 seconds, you tin can and so trim the tip flush. And if you're unhappy with the results, you can easily cut the new aglet off by slicing up its length with a arts and crafts pocketknife, and start fresh.

That's it! One time you know how information technology works and you lot have the correct materials on manus, you lot can set up a lace in under 5 minutes.

Where else could you apply this technique? Do you know other ways to fix a shoelace? Delight share in the comments below.